Predator and the Prey Sniper Wolf's Last Hunt
by The Mysterious Traveller
Summary: Solid Snake prepares to take out Sniper Wolf once and for all...but for HIM is this battle as simple as the many, many others he's fought throughout his life as a soldier?


The Predator and the Prey – Sniper Wolf's Last Hunt  
  
"Now I'm going to pay you back for Meryl." Snake growled bitterly.  
  
"You men are so WEAK…" the scorn in Sniper Wolf's voice cut into him far more piercingly than the coldness all around him. "…you can NEVER finish what you start."  
  
As her face, cool yet excited and thrilled by the prospect of their imminent life-or-death conflict, disappeared from the screen of the codex Snake was once more left alone in the middle of the ferocious Alaskan blizzard that hadn't once let up on that fateful night…well, 'alone' except for the fact that somewhere in the middle of all tat dense falling snow there was a cold-blooded killer who even now lay waiting for him to come into clear view, waiting to pull back the trigger of her rifle.  
  
Waiting to pick him off like a clueless animal, bewildered as he died with a hole running through him.  
  
Only he wouldn't let that happen – he still had too much to take care of, too many things left to do before HIS time came.  
  
As he wheeled around, his knees bent and his neck craned, the snow bit into Snake's face…if he'd taken a second longer to react then the life would have been torn right out of the other side of his body by the bullet that was fired by his enemy as he moved, the bullet which rather than passing clean through the side of his head now instead hit the metal security-door that he'd just exited, denting it as it ricocheted.  
  
Even the falling snow, slicing into his skin like bitter shrapnel as he moved through it to get under cover, was nothing compared to the coldness that he'd always carried around inside. The numbness that set in on him didn't even slow his progress as he made his way swiftly yet steadily across the ice white-covered ground, followed by the sound of unsuccessful rifle-shots aimed after his retreating figure by his would-be killer from the practically total safety within the folds of the veil of falling snow – Wolf, Meryl, bullets and death, it all seemed to have suddenly gone far, far away from him.  
  
Or rather it was that HE'D gone away to a place totally removed, utterly different from the Alaskan Base on Shadow Moses…'a world where such things are meaningless'.  
  
Snake ducked beneath the level of the small cliff-face that came into view – as he pressed his back against the terrain, which was frozen solid, coated in permafrost he caught the acrid smell of smoke and immediately guessed why. Behind the metal fence that stood to his left burned the wreckage of the Hind-D that he'd taken down such a short while ago…  
  
However Snake didn't have time to think about that now – something else had distracted him from his life-or-death struggle with the lady-sniper. A concept that went beyond death…transcended it. A concept that had been hinted at earlier that night…by HIM.  
  
Snake realised that back when it had been he hadn't been ready to understand the meaning, grasp the significance of the implications for HIMSELF in what that ghost from his past had said to him…but now in the darkness and coldness all around he thought he understood the meaning that lay at the heart of the words and a jolt of sense-shattering shock made him shiver inwardly.  
  
When he'd seen her teeth, white and grinning…that had been when he'd finally understood.  
  
The anger that he'd felt upon being confronted again by the one who had so horribly injured Meryl was calmed and the familiar rush of adrenaline that had always guided him through mortal combat was stilled – leaving him grimly calm. Now he knew what the Ninja had been telling him and with understanding of the truth their came resolve, the one thing that made it possible to break the never-ending cycle that was Sniper Wolf's existence.  
  
To hunt the hunter…he needed to become the hunter himself.  
  
Snake's hands had been resting lightly on the side of his own Sniper-Rifle, his fingers wavering before closing around the weapon but now it slid away…and closed around the Nikita Missile Launcher. His mistake, he now realised, had been to assume that playing their game was the only way to get into his enemy's head…never before had it occurred to him to force HER to play HIS game.  
  
Now HE was the hunter…and Sniper Wolf the prey.  
  
One Missile was all he'd need.  
  
Snake watched as the Missile cut its path via the screen of the Reconnaissance-camera in disinterest – his only desire was to seek out the prêt that lay concealed within the heart of the swirling blizzard. Guiding the Missile carefully up the slope that led up onto the ridge he kept his eye fixated on the screen with relentless patience…it was the empty ammunition-clip that betrayed her position to him, rolling across the snow as she dismissively tossed it over her shoulder, abandoning it to reload her Rifle, keeping her attention fixed ahead as she waited for her prey to come out from under cover…and into her sight.  
  
It was Sniper Wolf's mistake that she didn't realise that in a heartbeat – SNAKE'S – they'd switched roles…that of prey and that of predator.  
  
Little did she know that as she waited to pick him off SHE was being hunted…  
  
The small 'whoomph' that the Missile's propellant made as it gave the propulsion of the Missile a fresh kick caught her attention though – it was credit to the Reconnaissance-Camera that the screen was so clear that as Wolf looked over her shoulder Snake saw the vague shock that covered her face as if she was right in front of him.   
  
Wolf tried to run of course but with cold and focused determination he re-directed the Missile, twisting and turning its path as he pursued her through the trees that stood clumped together…proving himself to be the more ruthless hunter.  
  
Wolf was snared so tightly that she couldn't even see the noose…until it was all over for her.  
  
What Snake saw before he lost Visual on the Nikita's Camera-Screen shocked him but in a slightly, vague, nagging way…the expression on Wolf's face was utterly unexpected to him as she turned and realised that the Missile was upon her and that she couldn't escape but he found, much to his own unease, that for some reason he wasn't at all surprised.  
  
What…?  
  
Snake felt his arms going slack, his body weak with disbelief, numbed far more than the most ferocious downpour of snow could have achieved. As he dropped the Missile Launcher which landed heavily on the ground he lay back against the harsh and unforgiving rock, breathing shallowly…still REELING from what he'd just felt, experienced, SEEN.  
  
The bare relief in Wolf's eyes had struck him more than the explosion that now rolled over the horizon behind him.  
  
Fox…Gray Fox… Snake thought bitterly as he realised that the Ninja who had dogged his steps like a cruel memory over the last few hours truly was his old war-buddy…or rather WHAT the Gray Fox he'd once known had BECOME since Zanzibar. Is this how YOU feel…is THIS what every day you spend doomed to walk this Earth is like for YOU?  
  
Like a ghost Fox was doomed to travel endlessly through this world without any possible destination or hope of ever finding rest, his only purpose to overcome and destroy any other warrior that crossed his path…the only possible release HE could hope for being his own death.  
  
That was what the warrior Snake had once known had become…and what he'd just realised he himself would undoubtedly become one day if he continued unwaveringly to walk his present path in life. His realisation filled him with a more bitter, more chilling cold than before…but what other path could he possibly take NOW? He'd walked the bloodied trail of the soldier all his life – the clearest memory that he could recall from his early life was the face of the first man whose life he'd taken for the privilege of keeping his own…and even HIS was hazy and blurred, faded by the passing of years, the loss of youth and time.  
  
Meryl…  
  
It was strange – he'd thought that killing the woman who'd caused the Colonel's niece such pain would make him feel better about not being able to protect her from that pain. But NOW…  
  
'Men and their games….you're like wild animals!'  
  
A grim smile crossed Snake's face as Naomi's voice echoed in his memory and shook his head – he'd felt amused when she'd told him that, her voice fierce and accusing, but now he found it strangely fitting.   
  
"Wolf…" Snake said, his voice firm and assured once more as the familiar smirk crossed his face and he emerged from his turmoil even stronger for having been tested. "…you're wrong. I'm not weak…I'm an animal. A predator."  
  
…a hunter.  
  
Certain once more of his role in the world Solid Snake rose to his feet, rising above the level of the small cliff that had shielded him from the gun-fire…all was quiet and peaceful around him and he resolved to go on with his mission.  
  
Time was running out…  
  
As he turned around the first thing that he saw was the outline of a body in the distance, a figure lying in the snow twitching as it breathed, the life slowly leaving it.  
  
Wolf was dying…  
  
Snake hesitated – like Naomi had said he was a SOLDIER above all else…  
  
As he walked towards the dying body of Sniper Wolf whose journey had reached its conclusion whereas he prepared to continue his own, as ever without God's blessing, Snake failed to notice the parachute that hung significantly from the branches of one of the trees standing close to the smouldering wreckage of Liquid Snake's Hind-D…  
  
* End * 


End file.
